The invention is generally directed to a new construction method for pre-shaped gloves and mitts and, in particular, to a new construction method in which the gathering of the parts of the gloves or mitts required by the glove or mitt for pre-curving is accomplished in a fashion which simplifies and improves the construction of the pre-curved gloves and mitts.
In the past, pre-curved gloves have been constructed by gathering the material of the back, front or side of a glove or mitt in a fashion which causes the glove or mitt to have a pre-curved shape. Generally, when hands are kept in a relaxed state, the fingers curve inwardly rather than extending straight outwardly. As such, if gloves or mittens are designed for a flat hand, then there will be some tension on the wearer's fingers, as the hand is either forced into a straight position by the gloves or mittens or maintains pressure on the fingers as the fingers attempt to move to a curled, at rest position.
In the past, there have been various attempts to provide pre-curving to gloves and mittens and various conventional techniques for pre-curving gloves are known in the art.
One approach which has been used in boxing gloves is gathering, in which the back is cut much bigger than the palm. The sewing machine operator fits the back to the palm by gathering the excess material in the back to the palm of the glove and then sews the gathered material along a seam. This approach requires the highest degree of skill by the sewing machine operator to select how much material should be gathered and where to gather and will in any event have variations between mittens.
More recently, in connection with mittens, shirring one or more surfaces of the mitten on the inside by attaching an elastic strip to the inside of the mitten panel and thereby causing that panel to curve inwardly has been used. This approach is relatively expensive because it requires the addition of elastic and additional construction steps. Also, the sewing still requires a fairly high degree of skill to attach the elastic in the correct locations and under the correct stretchable conditions, although not as much as the boxing glove type construction. The elastic also adds a rough surface to the inside of the mitten.
Another pre-curving approach, used for World War II pilots' gloves used pre-curved fourchettes assembled to elongated backs and shortened palms. The curve on the back of the fourchette was longer than the curve on the palm side making up for the difference in size of the back and front portions. Ski gloves have also been made with this technique of using pre-curved fourchettes and sidewalls. However, the curves on the fourchettes and sidewalls are difficult to regulate and the curved pattern of the fourchettes and sidewalls can use substantial material with a large amount of waste.
In practice, the pre-curvature of gloves should be pronounced at the locations of the joints of the fingers. Particularly, the two outer joints of each finger and the outer joint of the thumb. At these locations it is essential that the glove be curved to adapt to the relaxed position of the hand and provide improved flexibility for gripping. Generally, when a sewing machine operator attempts to gather the material it requires a high degree of skill and experience. The correct amount of material must be gathered so that the dimension of the panel which is to be reduced by the Gathering is reduced by the correct amount. Also, the gathering must be done in the correct area so that the curvature is correctly located at the joints of the fingers. In practice, there is great variability from piece to piece and the desired uniformity of product is not possible, even with highly skilled sewing machine operators. Furthermore, the high experience and skill levels required by the sewing machine operators requires greater costs and expenditures finding and keeping highly skilled sewing machine operators. Also, the angle of articulation cannot be controlled and varied, with more articulation at the mid-finger joint than at the joint by the fingertip.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved construction method or methods for pre-shaped gloves and mitts in which the pre-curvature can be implemented by darting, gathering or cutting and sewing with a visual indication of the pattern so that the pre-curved gloves and mittens can be constructed in a reproducible fashion with variability in articulation at the finger joints with relatively unskilled sewing machine operators.